


born to trouble

by rain_sleet_snow



Series: My Family (And Other Dinosaurs) [43]
Category: Primeval
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-02-01
Updated: 2009-02-01
Packaged: 2018-03-10 00:53:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3270674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rain_sleet_snow/pseuds/rain_sleet_snow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Short outtakes from Sparks Fly Upwards.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Puppetmaster

            There was a group of scientists in the room. They were being watched by Helen Cutter, and a woman no-one recognised.

 

            “Kill one of them,” Helen ordered.

 

            “You’re joking,” the unknown woman said.

 

            “They all die, then.” Helen shrugged. “It’s your choice.”

 

            The woman’s face turned from Helen to the scientists, and then she took the gun, handling it easily, and took aim for a long moment in which nobody breathed- whirled- fired- over Helen’s head.

 

            “Kidnapping me doesn’t make me your puppet, Helen. Try to make me murder,” Liz Lester promised, “and the next bullet goes between your eyes.”

 


	2. Just Passing Through

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Liz Lester encounters the Tethys and finds herself all at sea.

            The traveller stepped through the anomaly, hands tucked through the straps of her dusty rucksack, and then her jaw dropped.

 

            She had climbed a very steep hill to get here, the anomaly sparkling at the summit, and now she was standing on a patch of dry land approximately three metres square, surrounded by water- by the _sea_ , no less, she realised as she bent to dip a finger in the water and taste it cautiously.

 

            Liz turned on her heel, ignoring the glitter of the anomaly behind her, examining her surroundings and seeing nothing but the sea stretching all the way to the horizon and an idyllic blue sky. A couple of shapes, perhaps pterosaurs, but Liz was too far away to identify them, and probably couldn’t classify them as anything other than ‘bloody great bird thing’ anyway; her knowledge of prehistoric creatures extended to a basic grounding in things she could eat and things that could eat her.

 

           She had no idea which geological era she was in, or how to get home. Maybe Helen could map and predict the anomalies, but she couldn’t, so all she could do was dart in and out of anomalies, looking for one to take her home. Although there was always a sense of disappointment when she didn’t step out into a recognisably twenty-first century landscape, she still loved the wildness of the time periods she visited; she could almost understand why Helen had never returned home after stumbling through that anomaly in the Forest of Dean all those years ago.

 

            The stiff breeze plucked at her clothes; faded red t-shirt, cropped and stained blue jeans, tightly laced, battered walking boots, her dark ponytail flapping flag-like in the wind, constrained by a worn hairband. She looked dirty and thin and bruised, but alive, and she was not totally defenceless; she had a sizeable and sharp knife to hand.

 

            Liz Lester spotted the v-shaped trail of an approaching predator in the water and retreated to the humid safety of the Cretaceous Period (or possibly the Jurassic, it wasn’t as if she could tell the difference.)   _There’s such a thing as overstaying your welcome_ , she reflected, and walked briskly away from the anomaly with only a quick glance back to check that the predator wasn’t trying to follow her, just in case it happened to be amphibious rather than water-bound. Caution paid off.

 

           After all, one day - _one day soon_ , she promised herself- she was going to get home, even if it took her the rest of her life. And when she did, she’d prefer to be in one piece.


End file.
